Why Coffee Beans Need Roasting: The Science Behind Flavor Development

FrontStreet Coffee · Bourbon Variety Origin and Flavor Characteristics: Differences Between Red Bourbon and Yellow Bourbon

Bourbon coffee (French: Café Bourbon) is a coffee produced from Arabica coffee Bourbon cultivar trees. Bourbon coffee was originally cultivated in Réunion, which was also known as Île Bourbon before 1789. It was later occupied by France and connected to the African continent and Latin America. It is now one of the two most popular Arabica coffee production regions in the world. Bourbon coffee is typically grown at altitudes of 3,500 to 6,500 feet (1,062-1,972 meters).

Overall, different varieties of Bourbon coffee beans, such as FrontStreet Coffee's Brazilian Cerrado Red Bourbon, FrontStreet Coffee's Brazilian Queen Yellow Bourbon, and FrontStreet Coffee's Kenyan Hania French Mission Bourbon, share similar flavor profiles, all featuring distinct notes of dark chocolate, cocoa, nuts, and caramel, with smooth acidity and lower bitterness.

Bourbon Varieties

The Bourbon variety is a subspecies that mutated from Typica. Together with Typica, it belongs to the oldest existing coffee varieties. When green fruits ripen, they display a bright red color.

Compared to Typica, Bourbon plants have broader leaves and grow more densely. Although their yield is higher than Typica, they still have a two-year harvest cycle, making them a low-yield variety. However, they offer excellent quality flavor with wine-like acidity and sweet aftertaste. The coffee beans are large in size, uniform in shape, and have a consistent glossy color. For harvesting convenience, farmers typically prune coffee trees to no more than 150 centimeters in height.

Red Bourbon

For Red Bourbon, after the coffee tree flowers and bears fruit, the color transformation of coffee cherries follows this sequence: green → light yellow → light orange → mature red → dark red when fully ripe. Therefore, it is also called "Red Bourbon variety." In fact, Red Bourbon is what we generally refer to as Bourbon. Bourbon grown at high altitudes typically has superior aroma, brighter acidity, and even exhibits wine-like flavors when tasted.

Yellow Bourbon

The Yellow Bourbon variety is a hybrid of Bourbon with other varieties. Due to its lower yield and lower resistance to wind and rain, it has not been widely cultivated. However, when grown in high-altitude areas, it demonstrates excellent flavor characteristics and has become more common in recent years.

Yellow Bourbon, with yellow fruit when ripe, was first discovered in Brazil and currently grows mainly in Brazil. It is generally believed to have originated from a mutation resulting from the hybridization of red-fruited Bourbon with a yellow-fruited Typica variety called "Amerelo de Botocatu."

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